Pg. 171; What is a Mole?
The book takes a few paragraphs to explain that there are different ways to count things; volumes, masses, a head count etc.
Pg. 173; The Number of Particles in a Mole
The book explains Avogadro's Number and how many atoms are in a mole.
Pg. 176; The Mass of a Mole of an Element
The book explains how the atoms of different elements have different masses.
The combination of these three sightings certainly satisfies Criterion III.A. Indicator 1 (Phenomena are useful in making the key ideas real) is clearly met when a student takes these three important sections out of the chapter and realizes that these three ideas together are the main concept of the mole and that without the mole, chemical reaction predictions would be quite improbable. Indicator 2 (Phenomena are linked to the relevant key ideas) is also fulfilled because they give direct analogies as to how these topics could be useful when applying it to real chemistry. It is for these reasons that I am saying that this criterion is met.
Criterion III.B: Providing Vivid Experiences
Pg. 170; Counting by Measuring Mass
The book suggests an activity which has students take masses of paper clips, find an average mass for the paper clips, and then predict how many paper clips they have using their data.
This activity is certainly efficient since it only requires paper clips and mass balances which should be easy to obtain in a school setting. It will also hopefully be a time saver. With an experience like this the kids can learn how to use conversions and mole masses more quickly than just giving them pencil and paper work. A real life, first hand application certainly will help a tool stick in their head more readily. I would also say that this experience is excellent and meets the criterion.
Criterion IV.B: Representing Ideas Effectively
Pg. 172; fig. 7.2
The book provides a picture displaying milk, apples, and other produce to illustrate that things can be tallied using different methods
Pg. 174; table 7.1
The book provides a table with a selection of elements and compounds and shows that they all have the same number of atoms per mole
Pg. 177; fig. 7.7
The book provides a picture of one mole each of 4 different elements, illustrating that there are different amounts of matter for each mole of an element
The representations are certainly accurate. Only two of them, though, are explicitly linked to the actual chemical phenomena. They should, for the most part, be comprehensible to students. Fig. 7.8 may be a little tricky as it involves some small math formulations. Students who are not good with a graph could take a while on this graphic. I would give this criterion a satisfactory rating and therefore call it questionable. I personally probably wouldn't use any of these graphics in my class since I don't think that any one of them displays the whole idea or concept of what a mole and why it is useful.
Part 4
All the phenomena addressed here should absolutely be involved in a lesson about the mole and it's relationship with mass and volume of different elements. But, I really don't like the representations that are provided with the text. I would probably issue a reading assignment to read those three sections (about 8 pages with many illustrations) and then create my own graphics that will compare and contrast different measurements with the mole and how different elements can effect it.
I will definitely include the activity with the paper clips. I think it is a great idea in the sense that kids will be able to use this tool on the macroscopic scale and hopefully realize that working with atoms is the same way, only they will be working with something that appears to be a quantity of one. They must see the chemical as a quantity of many all working around each other to form one.
I would also like to include a demonstration of oranges and apples to illustrate different elements having different masses. I would take three of each and weigh them to show that they can be measured differently. I would do this as a demonstration before the paper clip activity so they can see something sort of what they should be doing.
Criterion III.A: Providing a Variety of Phenomena
Pg. 171; What is a Mole?
The book takes a few paragraphs to explain that there are different ways to count things; volumes, masses, a head count etc.
Pg. 173; The Number of Particles in a Mole
The book explains Avogadro's Number and how many atoms are in a mole.
Pg. 176; The Mass of a Mole of an Element
The book explains how the atoms of different elements have different masses.
The combination of these three sightings certainly satisfies Criterion III.A. Indicator 1 (Phenomena are useful in making the key ideas real) is clearly met when a student takes these three important sections out of the chapter and realizes that these three ideas together are the main concept of the mole and that without the mole, chemical reaction predictions would be quite improbable. Indicator 2 (Phenomena are linked to the relevant key ideas) is also fulfilled because they give direct analogies as to how these topics could be useful when applying it to real chemistry. It is for these reasons that I am saying that this criterion is met.
Criterion III.B: Providing Vivid Experiences
Pg. 170; Counting by Measuring Mass
The book suggests an activity which has students take masses of paper clips, find an average mass for the paper clips, and then predict how many paper clips they have using their data.
This activity is certainly efficient since it only requires paper clips and mass balances which should be easy to obtain in a school setting. It will also hopefully be a time saver. With an experience like this the kids can learn how to use conversions and mole masses more quickly than just giving them pencil and paper work. A real life, first hand application certainly will help a tool stick in their head more readily. I would also say that this experience is excellent and meets the criterion.
Criterion IV.B: Representing Ideas Effectively
Pg. 172; fig. 7.2
The book provides a picture displaying milk, apples, and other produce to illustrate that things can be tallied using different methods
Pg. 174; table 7.1
The book provides a table with a selection of elements and compounds and shows that they all have the same number of atoms per mole
Pg. 177; fig. 7.7
The book provides a picture of one mole each of 4 different elements, illustrating that there are different amounts of matter for each mole of an element
The representations are certainly accurate. Only two of them, though, are explicitly linked to the actual chemical phenomena. They should, for the most part, be comprehensible to students. Fig. 7.8 may be a little tricky as it involves some small math formulations. Students who are not good with a graph could take a while on this graphic. I would give this criterion a satisfactory rating and therefore call it questionable. I personally probably wouldn't use any of these graphics in my class since I don't think that any one of them displays the whole idea or concept of what a mole and why it is useful.
Part 4
All the phenomena addressed here should absolutely be involved in a lesson about the mole and it's relationship with mass and volume of different elements. But, I really don't like the representations that are provided with the text. I would probably issue a reading assignment to read those three sections (about 8 pages with many illustrations) and then create my own graphics that will compare and contrast different measurements with the mole and how different elements can effect it.
I will definitely include the activity with the paper clips. I think it is a great idea in the sense that kids will be able to use this tool on the macroscopic scale and hopefully realize that working with atoms is the same way, only they will be working with something that appears to be a quantity of one. They must see the chemical as a quantity of many all working around each other to form one.
I would also like to include a demonstration of oranges and apples to illustrate different elements having different masses. I would take three of each and weigh them to show that they can be measured differently. I would do this as a demonstration before the paper clip activity so they can see something sort of what they should be doing.